Pascal Hens: „Only the finals in Serbia"

The 31 year-old left-back, Pascal Hens is one of the most experienced players in the German squad for the EHF EURO in Serbia.

The HSV Hamburg player has been the national team captain for a year now, and he gave two excellent performances in the final test matches against Hungary (36:33 and 21:22).

Before the start of their EHF EURO 2012 campaign, Hens talked to ehf-euro.com about the atmosphere in the team and the German objectives.

ehf-euro.com: For the first time ever, not Heiner Brand, but Martin Heuberger is your national team coach in a major tournament. How do you rate Heuberger’s current work?

Pascal Hens: He is doing a really good job, as he’s added new methods to our training sessions. We all have respect for him, and if anybody did not, he would be at the wrong place.

ehf-euro.com: How was the final preparation camp?

Pascal Hens: Very tough for an old man like me! The coach pushed through his whole, tough program with three or more sessions every day. But now we are in a perfect state of fitness.

ehf-euro.com: There is huge pressure on the German team after the weak performances at the EHF EURO 2010 and the World Championship 2011. How is the atmosphere in the team?

Pascal Hens: Despite the tough training sessions, we had a lot of fun. But the tension is rising day by day. We’re all very glad that the EHF EURO will start soon, to have real matches so that we know where we stand.

ehf-euro.com: The EHF EURO is the last German chance to book a ticket for one of the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Do you know exactly what has to happen for you to qualify?

Pascal Hens: Of course, as I’m the team captain I studied the modus very intensively, but one still cannot say what final ranking we must reach to get one of those tickets.

It all depends on the teams we can leave behind. And this will be a really tough struggle, starting in the Preliminary Round with the matches against Czech Republic, Sweden and FYR Macedonia.

ehf-euro.com: What are your personal objectives, concerning those circumstances?

Pascal Hens: We only focus on one match and this is the path-breaking opening battle against the Czechs. If we win, we are nearly into the Main Round. If we lose, it will be really tough to go ahead.

So we’ll concentrate only from match to match – and the game against the Czech Republic is the first of many finals for our team. And we hope to have many finals in Serbia!

ehf-euro.com: So the targets are much lower than in previous years?

Pascal Hens: We have to be realistic. After our weak tournaments in Austria 2010 and Sweden 2011 we know that we are not at the top anymore, but it’s still our supreme target to proceed to London.

ehf-euro.com: What are the biggest problems before the start of the EHF EURO?

Pascal Hens: Obviously we have some major problems in attack, as we very often lack concentration. We have to make the right decisions in the crucial moments of every match, and we’ve focused on this task in the preparation.

We have to have a cool head and must not be so frantic. In contrast, our defence is working well.